Singing is full of them:
1
Singing is easy, everybody can sing, well there are only about 3% of people who can’t sing and will never be able to learn as they have what is called amusia and as of yet there is no cure. Yet around 59% of adults identify as not being able to sing but with help and a desire to learn they can learn to sing. I personally have helped around 60 non-singers so far to learn to sing and change their minds about their abilities.
Singing is easy, yes it is, but to sing well in a choir is hard and requires a lot of effort.
2
Singing is all about controlling the escaping breath, and that is very hard and requires a lot of practice, normally we just breathe in and out easily and automatically yet that isn’t enough for singing as we would end up breathing every few notes which would create a stilted performance.
3
We have to emote when we sing to get the sentiment of the text across but emoting too much by feeling the text to strongly, or maybe it has a strong personal connotation for you, makes it too emotionally draining to sing.
4
When we sing short detached notes they still have to be sung smoothly to be able to link them within the phrase.
5
We need to support our sound but not create too much pressure in our body, we must balance exertion with relaxation.
6
Ideally one should practice so much that you can’t get it wrong however too much practice can make a song so routine that boredom creeps in and reduces the effect of it. The song will lack energy and commitment and this will be sensed by the audience.
7
Is it better to feel so that you know you are singing well or to listen? Listening to yourself can be misleading as the way we sound to ourselves is different to how other people hear us or what we hear when we listen to ourselves on a recording. Feeling that singing is going well is more reliable than listening but we have to listen to ourselves and others to see how it is all blending together.
Exercise
How many people outside of the choir do you know who have said to you: “I would love to be able to sing but can’t”. Only 3% of them are telling the truth. Get the rest of them to join us and we will teach them. It is possible and so much to be gained at so little cost from singing.
